posted on Monday, January 5, 2015
The start of a new year usually leaves us all feeling inspired to make changes, resolutions or start something new. Whether you believe in setting resolutions or not, there is still that feeling of starting the year with a clean slate. However, more often than not, those feelings usually fade as the days and weeks march along. Those feelings are similar to when you leave a conference or workshop feeling inspired and ready to make changes. The good intentions that we have usually last for a while but eventually disappear. This is why our Foundation is excited to introduce a new concept we have for 2015!
This past fall the Ed Thomas Family Foundation introduced our first leadership academy. We had over 490 students and supervisors attend. The goal of the academy was to inspire students to be leaders in their schools and communities, much like Coach Thomas inspired his students and athletes. Many of the students and supervisors stated that they let the event feeling very inspired. We did not want those feelings to end once the Leadership Academy was over so we decided to develop a follow-through for the students and supervisor who attended the academy and also for anyone needing a little motivation for the week.
This idea was derived from Coach Thomas and also Coach Kerns (Coach Thomas’ long-time assistant coach and A-P girls track coach.) Before each football practice Coach would have a thought that he would discuss with his players. Coach Kerns also did this with his track girls as well and he called it the “Thought of the Day.” This “thought” had nothing to do with x’s and o’s but made the athletes focus on the intangibles of sports, such as character, hard work, teamwork, accountability and much more. This is why each month of this year we have picked a concept to focus on. For example, our first month’s focus will be on Integrity. Each Monday of the month we will share a short video with a “Thought of the Week”. The week will be filled with quotes and verses that follow along with each thought. Our goal is to provide follow-through from our leadership academy and hopefully leave you inspired for the week ahead. Below is a short video of Coach Kerns explaining this concept and it will also serve as an example for what each “Thought of the Week” will look like. We hope you will enjoy it.